


Time was never on our side

by Thighz



Series: OW Tumblr Shorts [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Age Difference, Facing your past, Gabriel is old and Jack is young, M/M, Pining, Time Travel, as in, hand holding, old soldiers in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 09:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20061688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thighz/pseuds/Thighz
Summary: There's never enough time to fix every mistake. It doesn't stop Gabriel from trying.





	Time was never on our side

**Author's Note:**

> I rescued some of my old Tumblr shorts from the dreaded Purge of 2018.
> 
> This was written for my lovely fandom soulmate, Hanji. Who requested Hand Holding for her birthday a few years ago.
> 
> _Enjoy_

It was Sombra’s fault.

Sombra and her ‘if a gorilla can do it, so can I’ attitude while Gabriel was attempting to map out their next target. One second he’s telling her to stop mumbling shit to herself and the next he’s having an out of body experience as he whips through blue lightning and comes out in the middle of a watchpoint hallway. 

It’s empty, thank god, but the walls aren’t peeling or crumbling under the weight of the years. This hall is shiny, new and Gabriel knows this because he still dreams of it, even in death. He still closes his eyes and remembers whites and blues and golds. 

He hears footsteps behind him, knows he can’t be seen dressed as he is. Full kevlar, white mask, black cloak. So he disperses into an adjoining hallway, equally empty and presses his back into the wall. Whoever it is doesn’t pass his hiding place, but he does catch the sound of a door clicking shut. 

Gabriel pulls away from the wall and checks the long hallway for any other personnel. Tries to find something that will tell him the date. 

He goes to his own office, neat as a pin, with files stacked in one bin. His computers are shut down and the office smells of disuse. Gabriel runs his clawed hands over the thin glass and fabricated parts. 

It feels like a thousand years ago.

A noise in the hallway causes him to look up fast, shoulders hunched. It passes the office door, fading away down the hall. 

He goes to Jack’s office next, it’s empty as well. However, the computer is on and there’s a yellow post it at the top that says ‘don’t forget to call him this time’. His heart, or whatever’s left of it, shudders. 

Gabriel takes in the pictures littering Jack’s desk. Some are in frames, other’s taped to the edge of the screens. Most of them are of Jack and Gabe, some include Ana or the other Overwatch members. One is of Jack’s parents waving from the deck of a ship, brightly colored lei’s around their necks. Gabriel remembers Jack getting the postcard. Jack had been so happy. His parents deserved a vacation. 

He leaves Jack’s office and finds said strike commander behind the watchpoint. He’s leaning against a stack of shipping crates, hiding, from the looks of it. His coat is gone and there’s a cigarette between his lips, eyes staring out across the ocean. 

His hair is still bright gold, and the ocean breeze rustles it across his forehead. 

Gabriel stays in the shadows, watching like a silent predator. 

Jack is still young. There’s no white through his hair or wrinkles at the edge of his eyes. This is within the first couple of years of him becoming commander. 

He’s still so  _ young. _ So ignorant of what’s to come.

“I know you’re there.” Jack releases a puff of smoke, stubing the butt out against the crate and tossing it over the cliffside. His head turns in Gabriel’s direction and blue eyes sharpen their focus into the shadows. 

Gabriel takes a step out, slow, careful. 

He watches Jack’s shoulders tense, eyebrows dropping into a scowl and suspicion curling at the edge of his mouth. One of Jack’s hands move to palm the pistol at his thigh, normally hidden by his coat. 

“Who are you?” 

Gabriel hums soft sound, continuing to walk forward. He watches Jack’s eyes track the movement of the smoke around him, leaking from under his cloak and around the edges of the mask. It bleeds down his arms, spills from the tips of clawed gauntlets. The hand on the pistol curls around the hilt, then draws it level with Gabe’s chest.

He stops when the barrel of the gun presses where his heart should be. Jack’s stance doesn’t falter and his features never twitch. He’s every inch the soldier Gabriel remembered him to be. Jack never knew how to back down or give up or give in. 

And Gabriel still, after all this time, after everything, he still-

“An old friend.” Gabriel’s voice is ruined from the degeneration. Jack won’t be able to recognize it so early into their leadership. 

“I doubt that.” Jack snorts, flipping the safety off with his thumb, “I’ll ask one more time before I shoot.”

“You can’t kill me, Jack.” Gabriel mutters, “I’m already dead.”

Jack’s blue eyes widen only slightly before scanning Gabriel’s mask and his outer appearance. The gun doesn’t move and Jack’s stance doesn’t ease up. 

He raises one of his hands slowly and Jack’s eyes track its movement, watching as Gabriel turns it back to front. He sets the backs of his fingers, chilled metal and claws, against the sharp jut of Jack’s cheekbone. 

Jack swallows visibly and the gun at his chest trembles slightly, just enough for Gabriel to notice. 

“You’re so  _ young _ .” Gabriel whispers reverently, tracing the outer edges of Jack’s face. The tips of his fingers brush a strand of blonde out of the way, “Feels like a hundred years since I’ve seen you like this.” He isn’t able to mask the hitch in his tone.

Jack’s voice is rougher than usual when he asks, “Who  _ are _ you?” 

Gabriel drops the hand at Jack’s face to his neck, curls the claws around the pale flesh. His pulse is warm and alive even through the metal. Gabe uses his other hand to push the mask up over his head, revealing the smoking lines of his face. 

He’s a nightmare, he knows that already, but Jack-

The gun clatters to the earth between them. Jack’s mouth opens, closes, opens again and then his hands are cupping the sides of Gabriel’s face.

“ _ Gabriel _ ?” 

Gabriel closes his eyes at the cool touch of Jack’s fingers. His heart shivers, one of his hands curl around Jack’s wrist. 

“ _ Mi amor. _ ” Gabriel whispers the words between them, an echo of what he used to press against Jack’s mouth. As often as he could, in the darkness of their room and behind case files and in the midst of gunfire. 

Jack’s chest explodes with held breath and Gabriel meets his gaze once more. Jack’s eyes are wild, scanning his features, fingers tight against his regenerating flesh. Thumbs brush down his inner cheeks, skim over his top lip. Jack’s eyes map his face, the ruined marks, the white scars, the dark, oil-slick lines. 

“What happened to you?” Jack croaks. 

Too much. Too much to explain. Probably not a good idea to explain it. 

He cups the back of Jack’s neck and pulls him in for a kiss. 

Jack falls against his chest, willing and wanting, mouth open and eager against Gabe’s. Just as he’d always been. Except this time, Gabriel’s old, old and dead and withering away into nothing. Jack,  _ this _ Jack, is young and vibrant and about to take the world upon his shoulders. 

He pulls away, Jack protests softly, hands trying to bring Gabriel back in. 

Gabriel resists, gathering Jack’s hands between them. He allows the gauntlets to fade, smoke drifting off towards the sunset. His fingers grip Jack’s own, he brings it to his mouth, brushes his smouldering lips to the knuckles. The fingers curl around his own, squeezing. Gabe pulls back and watches as Jack presses their hands together, threads his young fingers between Gabe’s ruined ones. 

Gabriel’s heart twists at the sight. He remembers Jack beneath him, above him, those same hands intertwined with his own. 

Jack’s eyes are so _ blue _ . 

How many times had Gabriel lost himself in them? Too many to count. So many years between them. 

Gabriel reaches into Jack’s back pocket, pulls out a slim device, holds it between his other fingers. He dangles it between them, like a shield as he puts distance between their bodies.

He lets his hand slip out of Jack’s. 

“Gabe-.” Jack starts, but Gabriel shakes his head, pulls the mask back down and retreats inside himself.

“Don’t forget to call him.”

Jack takes the device, frowns down at it. His thumb brushes over the screen, his mouth parts to say something and Gabe-

Is back beside Sombra.

His chest burns.

“Holy shit, are you okay?” Sombra’s eyes are wide and the device in her hands is smoking. 

Gabriel growls, “Stop experimenting with shit when I’m right beside you.”

She huffs, scowling at him, “Fine.  _ Fine _ .”

Gabriel takes a steady breath, blows out smoke, “Find Soldier 76.” He steps past her, stands near her computer set-up expectantly. 

She gives him an affronted stare, “I thought you wanted to ‘give him his privacy’.” She uses air quotes and it’s annoying. 

“Just do it.” Gabriel hisses.

“God. You’re so impatient.” She tosses the smoking device into the garbage, slides into her chair and rolls up to the computer. A little fancy finger work and a fuzzy screen on the right brings Jack into view, shoulders bent over a desk in some crumbling watchpoint. 

“Where is he?” Gabriel asks.

Sombra gives him an incredulous stare, “Are you going  _ to him _ ?” 

“Just give me the location.” Gabriel snarls. 

\----

  
  


A few hours later, he’s standing in the doorway. 

Jack’s back is to him, his signature blue and red jacket hanging over the chair. His visor is pulled apart atop the desk. 

This Jack is the real one. 

White hair, scars down his arms and the exposed portion of his neck. He’s bent over his work, soldering iron in hand. Gabriel can smell the metal burning as he replaces the visors wiring harness. 

“I know you’re there, Gabe.” 

The words are an echo of the younger Jack’s. Gabriel has a difficult time pulling them apart and separating them. 

“You shouldn’t be here.” Jack speaks again, sets the soldering iron down gently. When Jack turns to face him, he’s present-day Jack. There’s a dark scar down the center of his face and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He’s aged and worn, exhausted from what has happened and what they’ve both had to become. 

A mess they both created and can’t quite fix.

“I had to see you.” Gabriel slips further into the room. 

Jack doesn’t move from his seat, but he doesn’t tell Gabriel to stop. 

A soft, weak smile ticks at the corner of Jack’s lips, “Yea. I know.” He props an elbow on the table, “Still a romantic, I see.”

Gabriel chuckles sadly, “Always was with you.” He lifts a hand and wiggles his clawed fingers, “I got to hold your hand again.”

Jack tips his head to the side, curious, hesitant, “You could have just asked.” He puts his own hand out and Gabriel watches them tremble with age and too much gunfire, “Or are we too far gone?”

Gabriel stares at it from behind his mask, the hand is free of its usual glove. They’re old, calloused, worn from use. 

The gauntlet melts away and Gabriel sets his palm against Jack’s. 

It feels like coming home.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you all for your continued support, comments and kudos.
> 
> To old and new readers, you can also follow me on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/gabrielsthighz)


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